Vehicles having drop-down type tailgates and a vehicle bed, such as pickup trucks, are commonly used to transport large, often heavy, objects such as lumber, furniture, and machinery. In practice, such objects often exceed the length of the vehicle bed and when placed therein extend over the tailgate. Such a situation may result in an awkward load, a situation which is preferably avoided.
One solution to this problem is to provide a larger vehicle bed. However, increasing the length of the bed must be weighed against other vehicle design objectives, such as the desire to have a vehicle which is short enough, from front bumper to rear bumper, to fit into most garages and parking spaces. Accordingly, there is a need for a vehicle structure that provides a temporary increase in space for a vehicle bed which restrains cargo from exiting the bed during vehicle operation.
A number of such structures have been proposed in the past. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,239 (Bowness et al.) discloses side panels 19, 21 that are hinged to the sides of panel 17 which pivoted to tailboard 15. The side panels 19, 21 are attached to the side walls 11,12 of the truck body to enlarge the capacity of the truck bed. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,639 (Binchi), a panel 17 is pivoted to the uppermost portions of tailgate 15. Side panels 19, 21 are hinged to panel 17 and positioned parallel to the truck pickup body. The panels 17, 19, 21 are unfolded to form a bed extension. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,773 (Smith) discloses enlarging the size of a truck bed by pivoted panels which unfold and slide along guides 28, 30. These patents, however, have various complications and disadvantages, such as difficulty in assembling the devices, the space taken up by storage of the devices when not in use, and the weight of the devices on the tailgate, and therefore have restricted usage.